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BackActivitiesPress ReleasesPRESS RELEASE: IHRC’S latest briefing provides an overview of the updated version of the ‘Counter-Terrorism Strategy of the United Kingdom’, also known as ‘CONTEST’, as published on the 24th of March 2009

PRESS RELEASE: IHRC’S latest briefing provides an overview of the updated version of the ‘Counter-Terrorism Strategy of the United Kingdom’, also known as ‘CONTEST’, as published on the 24th of March 2009.

The briefing looks at the leaked document published by the Guardian entitled Contest 2 which details the strategy to counter so-called extremist views. The briefing shows how the strategy, in casting the widest possible net to define extremism, succeeds in demonising most Muslims and undermines freedom of expression and the right of dissent.

The briefing discusses in some detail the omitted elements of the updated strategy where Muslims are considered extremist if:

• They advocate a caliphate, a pan-Islamic state encompassing many countries• They promote Sharia law.• They believe in jihad, or armed resistance, anywhere in the world. This would include armed resistance by Palestinians against the Israeli military. • They argue that Islam bans homosexuality and that it is a sin against Allah.• They fail to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The briefing also illustrates the role of think-tanks and the counter-productive agenda set in working against the Muslim community. It shows how these think-tanks and policies perpetuate a politics of fear rather than engagement and understanding.

IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh states:

"We call on the government to rethink the strategy which essentially advocates a politics of demonization of Muslims. The strategy seems to operate on the assumption that Muslims and Muslim belief are in need of being purged in order to combat extremism. This briefing shows how the faulty diagnosis and its expensive cures fail miserably."

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